Teams that eliminated one another from postseason play in each of the past two seasons begin a new chapter Sunday night when the Golden State Warriors host the Sacramento Kings in San Francisco.
The matchup of Northern California rivals will be the first since 2016 without Mike Brown on the sidelines, as the former Warriors assistant was fired as the Kings’ head coach last month.
The Kings have won three of four since handing the reins on an interim basis to Doug Christie. Sacramento had lost five in a row before dismissing Brown partway into his third season with a 110-89 overall mark.
The move did not sit well with Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who sat alongside Brown for six seasons, three of which finished in Golden State championships.
“We all kind of know this is a nature of the business,” Kerr said. “It just seems so shocking when a guy is unanimous coach of the year a year and a half ago. When you think about where that franchise was before Mike got there, and where they’ve been the last couple years, it’s really shocking.”
The Kings fell to the Los Angeles Lakers on the road in Christie’s debut but rebounded at home to beat the Dallas Mavericks, Philadelphia 76ers and Memphis Grizzlies.
A balanced attack has been the calling card of Christie’s Kings, with De’Aaron Fox contributing 33 points in the win over Dallas, Domantas Sabonis 17 points and 21 rebounds in the win over Philadelphia, and Malik Monk (31) and DeMar DeRozan (29) combining for 60 points on Friday in the win over Memphis.
Despite the improved form of late, the Kings remain out of the Western Conference playoff position. Monk said he and his teammates realize this is just a start.
“There’s no ups and downs. Can’t be too high. Can’t be too low,” he said. “We’ve got to keep working, but we’re happy for sure.”
When the Kings last saw the Warriors, they were happy indeed. They last met in the conference 9/10 play-in game at the end of the 2023-24 regular season.
Facing a team against which it lost a first-round playoff series a year earlier, host Sacramento stunned Golden State that night behind Keegan Murray’s eight 3-pointers in a 32-point explosion that propelled the Kings into the second round of play-ins with a 118-94 home romp.
The Warriors will take the court this time riding a two-game winning streak. They outlasted Memphis 121-113 on Saturday night on the front end of a back-to-back.
Golden State chose to sit out Stephen Curry, who has been bothered of late by sore knees and a sprained right thumb, in order to have him closer to 100 percent for the matchup against Sacramento.
Also without Brandin Podziemski (abdomen) and Gary Payton II (calf), the Warriors had to dig deep into their bench against the Grizzlies and got a key 16-point performance from Lindy Waters III.
Even without Curry, Golden State hit 23 3-pointers in the win. The Kings drained 21 of their own in the win over the Grizzlies.
-Field Level Media
